High Voltage Circuit Breaker Recovery Voltage

TRV is a direct result of the collapsing ambient magnetic field back into the circuit conductors when/as the circuit is being opened/disconnected.

All electrically energized conductors create an ambient/surrounding magnetic field in the air as well as in any ferrous metal object in the near vicinity.

Equipment such as motors and transformers store very high magnetic fields in their laminations and therefore interrupting these types of circuits results in higher TRV values.

Length of supply conductors is a contributing factor. (The greater the line length, the higher the magnatic field, and the higher the TRV value during fault interruption.)

The higher that the current in the interrupted circuit is at the time of the fault, the stronger the magnetic field is surrounding the conductors, and the higher the TRV will be.

Also: The steeper the angle (up to 90 degrees) the greater the magnitude of voltage induced back into the circuit. (Transformer design takes advantage of this law for improving efficiency.)

This is a very simple explanation and for a better, more "in-depth" understanding you need to obtain and thoroughly review any of the readily available information on circuit breaker operation during fault conditions from multiple vendors.

There are standard fault calculation formulae available to apply for identifying the TRV.

I would suggest a visit to Engineering Toolbox and subscribing to the site.